Given the ubiquity of 1980s sounds and aesthetic in modern pop music (recently taken past the point of tedium by Miley Cyrus’s Plastic Hearts and The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’), it was only a matter of time before someone asked, “Why is no-one tapping the vast…
First published on Medium on November 13th, 2020 “Articles, articles, articles, write that you remain unremarkable” The above is the best line in ‘Therefore I Am’, a new single from the sister-brother musical team of Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, released on Thursday. What’s…
First published on April 14, 2020, on Medium April is a cruel month to be stuck indoors, especially when the elusive English sunshine makes an appearance. Opening Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems, I noticed the following in ‘Spring’, from The Less Deceived (1955): “Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous, Is…
First published on July 8, 2019, on Medium It’s worth pointing out, given the justified popularity of Killing Eve, that it succeeds despite its plot being preposterous. Both at the macro level of premise and the micro level of events, the hit BBC series is almost…
This article was originally published in Progress on April 11th, 2019. As windy talk of a ‘truly global Britain’ fades away, a recent film makes the case for international solidarity – though less by its merits than its flaws. ‘A Private War’ is a dramatisation…
James Bloodworth is one of the few writers around who is as committed to human rights abroad as he is to economic democracy at home. In fact, he’s for both everywhere. This marks him out among a commentariat which, depending on ideology, will either neglect…
In Vladimir Nabokov’s 1947 novel Bend Sinister, a simple-minded supporter of the fanatical Average Man party, which has just taken power, describes the corruption and hypocrisy of the old regime: “Well, firstly, we were made to pay impossible taxes; secondly, all those Parliament ministers and…
The newly revamped Firing Line on PBS has in common with other TV and movie “reboots” the benefit of a familiar name and the burden of meeting expectations. Sadly, the new show, hosted by political commentator Margaret Hoover, is more hampered than helped by its…
This article was originally published in Open Democracy on November 11th, 2017 (Remembrance Sunday). For the German painter Otto Dix, the First World War really was “all over by Christmas” – only it was Christmas 1918, after he had spent four years on the front…
Review of Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle, originally published in Medium on October 19th, 2017. Is there something about the internet which brings out the worst in people? It’s a question one has reason to consider every day. But a new book by Angela…